Argentina has seen 11 homicides already this month that could be classified as femicides, with half of October still to go, a gender violence observatory reports.
Feminist organisation Mujeres de la Matria Latinoamericana, better known as MuMaLá noted in a report that recent weeks have seen the slaying of two young women and a teenager in Florencio Varela, two women in Córdoba and a young woman in Chaco.
Human rights organisations are sounding the alarm and have called on Argentina’s government to declare a state of emergency in the face of the increase in crimes linked to gender violence.
MuMaLá, which tracks gender-related violence, says there have been 195 femicides so far this year – i.e. one every 35 hours.
So far this month “there have been 11 fatal victims of machismo in its most extreme form – one every 28 hours,” said the NGO.
The Observatorio Nacional Mujeres, Disidencias, Derechos report, published at the end of September and current only until then, details 182 femicides and 758 attempted murders.
The assailant in both cases had already been denounced by 14 percent of the victims, 73 percent of the femicides were committed by a former partner or relative and 70 percent of the women, lesbians, travestis and trans who died were killed in their homes.
As a result of this violence, 120 children and adolescents have been left without a mother, concludes the report.
The MuMaLá report follows several high-profile murders, most notably the shocking triple femicide of three young females in Florencio Varela, Buenos Aires Province. Apparently linked to drug-trafficking, the slaying of 15-year-old Lara Gutiérrez and cousins Brenda Del Castillo and Morena Verdi (both aged 20) has drawn major media coverage.
Luna Giardina and her mother Mariel Zamudio in Córdoba were allegedly killed by the former’s ex-partner, who also kidnapped his son in the act. The femicides of Gabriela Arací Barrios in Chaco, as well as Adriana Velázquez and her daughter Mariana Bustos in Bahía Blanca have also drawn calls from human rights groups for government action.
This year marked the 10th anniversary of the first Ni Una Menos march in Argentina, which demanded improved policies to tackle gender violence. According to MuMaLá’s data, more than 2,500 people have been killed in such crimes since then.
“From June 1, 2015 to May 30, 2025, we have registered 2.589 femicides and trans/travesticidios. This means one woman or trans person murdered every 33 hours,” said the organisation.
– TIMES/NA
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